Here the root Hetero- from the Greek word έτερος [éteros], meaning "other party" or "another", from "one at one, together"[4] has been changed to root Homo- from the Greek word ὁμός [omos], meaning 'same' (not related to the Latin homo, 'man', as in Homo sapiens), thus connoting sexual acts and affections between members of the same sex, including lesbianism.[5]

Homonormativity

The term Homonormativity has been used as the assimilation of heteronormative ideals and constructs into LGBTQculture and individual identity. The term was used prominently by Lisa Duggan in 2003,[6] although transgender studies scholar Susan Stryker has noted that it was also used by transgender activists in the 1990s.[7] According to Penny Griffin, Politics and International Relations lecturer at the University of New South Wales, homonormativity upholdsneoliberalism rather than critiquing monogamy, procreation, and binary gender roles as heterosexist and racist.[8]Duggan asserts that homonormativity fragments LGBTQ communities into hierarchies of worthiness. LGBTQ people that come the closest to mimicking heteronormative standards of gender identity are deemed most worthy of receiving rights. LGBTQ individuals at the bottom of the hierarchy (transsexuals, transvestites, intersex, bisexuals, non-gender identified) are seen as an impediment to this elite class of homonormative individuals receiving their rights.[6]

Discrimination

Critics of cishomonormative attitudes argue that they are oppressive, stigmatizing, marginalizing of perceived deviant forms of sexuality and gender, and make self-expression more difficult when that expression does not conform to the norm. This includes bisexuality, intersexuality, transgenderism, asexuality, as well as others such as racialized minorities. Cishomonormative culture inside the homosexual mainstream "privileges homosexuality as normal and natural" and fosters a climate where other sexual orientations, gender identities and sexualities are discriminated against in LGBTQ organisations, clubs, publications, politics and so on.

Against other sexual orientations than heterosexuality and homosexuality

According to cultural anthropologist Gayle Rubin, heternormativity in mainstream society creates a "sex hierarchy" that gradates sexual practices from morally "good sex" to "bad sex." The hierarchy places reproductive, monogamous sex between committed heterosexuals as "good" and places any sexual acts and individuals who fall short of this standard lower until they fall into "bad sex." In the same way, cishomonormativity in mainstream homosexual culture creates a "hierarchy" that gradates identities and practices from morally "good" to "bad". This hierarchy places cisgendered homosexuals, particularly cisgendered homosexual males, on the top, specially those behaving within the standards ofGay culture. All other sexual orientations, as bisexuality, pansexuality, omnisexuality, polysexuality and other non-monosexualities are minoritised, oppressed, excluded, marginalized or simply denied as existent.

Against other gender identities than cisgendered male and female

As it does with sexual orientation, cishomonormativity in mainstream homosexual culture creates a "hierarchy" that only accepts cisgendered identities as "valid" and "good" and therefore places them on the top of the scale. Copying heteronormativity and its heterosexism, it also places cisgendered male identities over cisgendered female identities.

Against other sexes than male and female

Intersex people have biological characteristics that are ambiguously either male or female. If detected, intersex people in most present-day societies are almost always assigned a normative sex shortly after birth.[9] Surgery (usually involving modification to the genitalia) is often performed in an attempt to produce an unambiguously male or female body, with the parents'—rather than the individual's— consent.[10] The child is then usually raised and enculturated as a cisgendered member of the assigned sex, which may or may not match their emergent gender identity throughout life or some remaining sex characteristics (for example, chromosomes, genes or internal sex organs).[11]

In the cishomonormative contexts, intersex identities are marginalized and denied as non-existent.

Against other sexualities, forms of relationship and sexual preferences

Within the cishomonormative context, asexual people and other people not conforming to the sexual norm of the LGBT culture are marginalized and excluded. This exclusion includes all kinds of non-sexuality and demisexuality.

As cishomonormativity copy the standards of relationship from heteronormativity, people living in alternative forms of relationship, as polyamory, relationship anarchy, polygamy and so on are minoritised, marginalized and excluded. Even as promiscuity is commonly accepted and part of the norm in cisgendered homosexual male environments, alternative forms of relationship are not that welcome. LGBT activist usually fight for same-sex marriage, forgetting that other forms of relationship are oppressed in that system.

Apart from the leather subcultures that exist particularly inside the cisgendered homosexual male cultures, sexuality and sexual preferences are as embedded in norms in the cishomonormative context as they are in the heteronormative context. BDSM, fetishism and other sexual preferences are considered non-normative or paraphilias, and practitioners are excluded, marginalized and ridiculed within the mainstream communities.

As a part of this normalisation of sexuality, sex work is also marginalized and LGBT sex workers are put in the bottom of the cishomonormative "hierarchy" as they are not conforming to several norms of the LGBT culture. LGBTQ organisations working within a frame of cishomonormativity usually forget to fight for the rights of LGBT sex workers and distance themselves or even contribute to create more discrimination and marginalization for this group of exposed people.

Against racialized, ethnicalized and other cultural minorities

Cathy J. Cohen has linked heteronormativity to issues of race. In a chapter published in the book Black Queer Studies, the professor of political science at the University of Chicago, argues that heteronormativity does not equally distribute privilege and power among heterosexuals, but favors white, upper and middle-class heterosexuals.[12][13] She links sexuality in broader structures of power, intersecting with and inseparable from race, gender, and "class oppression." She points to the examples of single mothers on welfare (particularly women of color) and sex workers, who may be heterosexual, but are not heteronormative, and thus not perceived as "normal, moral, or worthy of state support" or legitimation.[14]

This distribution of privilege and power is mirrored in the LGBTQ communities, where the cishomonormative mainstream favors non-racialized, non-ethnicalized, upper and middle-class cisgendered homosexuals. This hierarchy also excludes from privileges minoritised religious groups and other cultural minorities within the mainstream social context.